MR. ISAACSON: So was that scene in The Social Network true?N.B. ALOTT5MA Style Guide does not support Dr. Summers' use of the plural pronoun "they" to avoid issues with a single person of indeterminate gender.
(Laughter.)
DR. SUMMERS: I've heard it said that I can be arrogant.
(Laughter.)
DR. SUMMERS: If that's true, I surely was on that occasion. One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o'clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they're looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an asshole.
(Laughter; applause.)
DR. SUMMERS: This was the latter case. Rarely, have I encountered such swagger, and I tried to respond in kind.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
YET AGAIN, SWARTHMORE FLIES UNDER THE DOUCHE RADAR: Updating its 2009 list, GQ once again ranks The Douchiest Colleges In America. And while Fair Harvard did not make the list, Larry Summers still had something yesterday to say about the Winklevii:
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Penn State is #2? Have the authors/editors not yet heard of Michigan State or Ohio State?
ReplyDeleteThat Duke has gone from #2 to unranked makes me question the validity of this list.
ReplyDeleteAs a Cornell alum, I am highly resentful of our being ranked the douchiest college in America, over Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, UF, Michigan, and the list goes on. I'm mad and I'm going to let you know about this chip on my shoulder!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness I feel free to ignore the ALOTT5MA Guide, with it's willy-nilly adovocating of crowded single spacing, the superfluous Oxford comma and avoiding the wonderful use of "they" for refering to a person of indeterminate gender, one of the better grammatical innovations of the last few decades.
ReplyDeleteI'm okay with referring to the Winkelvii in one sentence as both plural and singular: they are an asshole. An unusual circumstance.
ReplyDeleteThen he shouldn't have said "an undergraduate."
ReplyDeleteThe lack of overlap between the 2009 and 2011 lists is just proof of the fluidity of douchebaggery.
ReplyDeleteMSU doesn't have nearly enough street cred to rank on that list. U-M, on the other hand...
ReplyDeleteWhy do you seek to hurt me??
ReplyDeleteIs it breaking the "no politics" rule to suggest that the Electoral College belongs on this list?
ReplyDeleteI take issue with the suggestion that most of the sex at my alma mater is, um, self-administered. Horny-yet-socially-awkward undergrads come in both genders (and many sexual orientations).
ReplyDeleteThe rest of it, though, is pretty much on target.
I think the style guide would also call for no apostrphe in that "it[']s" up there. :)
ReplyDeleteSo, douchiest fictional school?
ReplyDeleteI'll throw out an easy one, Faber College (Animal House) and there damned double secret probation.
Seconded. But I also went to Michigan, so the I'm not sure if I should be twice as resentful or if it cancels out...
ReplyDeleteI'm Cornell/Michigan too and I vote for the double-douche (albeit two different kinds of douchery).
ReplyDeleteI think the Andy Bernard shout out really killed us recently, but our other most recent pop culture personality was the extra-awful resort owner's son in Dirty Dancing. I think in that context Andy is a step up.
Port Chester University. And the unnamed Connecticut college in The Skulls.
ReplyDeletegod love you for coming down on the right side of the trico college rivalry with the Swat dis (granted I say this as someone coming from a trico family--albeit my immediate family is Haverford/Bryn Mawr, and the rest of them are dirty dirty Swatties.)
ReplyDeleteThough to be fair, my husbands side is packed with douchiest colleges (Penn state, Yale, "a college in boston"). They are dead on with the "passion" thing.
I do take issue with labeling the Car Talk guys as douchey alums.
Yep.
ReplyDeleteOne advantage of the PSU co-ed is that she can talk smack with the best of the Monday morning quarterbacks. My lovely bride has had cow-orkers ask if she'd give football lessons to their wives.
ReplyDelete